Tickle · the · Pear

company names from LOTR: Palantir

So around Washington DC's metro there's a company called Palantir that's bought a lot of ad space all over the system. I normally wouldn't have paid attention except that I'm enough of a Lord of the Rings geek to recognize "palantír" as the name for something that basically looks and functions like a crystal ball.

Now: why would a company that wants more (federal) clients and a higher PR profile, want to name itself after an object that was used for basically evil purposes? This does not exactly inspire confidence.